The outside of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. The facility is Oregon’s only women’s prison. (Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
Oregon Department of Corrections officials have received hundreds of ideas from a governor-appointed panel for reforming the state’s only women’s prison and better protecting women against trauma, sexual abuse and misconduct.
The recommendations would make administrators more accountable for Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, which houses about 900 female inmates, and seek a change in culture at the Wilsonville prison. They would also increase oversight of allegations of sexual assault and strip searches and expand behavioral health programs, records obtained by the Capital Chronicle show.
The agency is reviewing most of the ideas, but has committed to a handful, such as expanded peer programs to help women train to become mentors, body scanners to reduce strip searches and others. The panel behind the recommendations was created by Gov. Tina Kotek nearly a year ago after a state-commissioned report found rampant problems at Coffee Creek, such as a culture of retaliation that discourages staff and inmates alike from reporting sexual misconduct.